Hey there and welcome back to Chapter 2 of our crazy story, I hope you've brought your Stahlhelms!
"...Naturally, the lands beyond the Gate are not on any map. It is a great unknown to us. We have no idea what anything is like there, neither the land nor the people. Nevertheless, we must learn what we can. Destroying the Gate is not the solution, for we don't know what it's effects would be, nor the chances of another Gate opening somewhere else in Germany. The German government is willing to make every effort to learn as much as possible about the lands beyond the Gate and get the perpetrators of the attacks on Berlin and Hamburg to sit at the negotiation table, by force if necessary. Even though there's great risk in this undertaking, it is the unanimous decision of the members of both the Reichstag and the Bundesrat that the lands beyond the Gate must be explored, the person or persons who masterminded the attacks on Berlin and Hamburg must be arrested, and to demand compensation for the damages caused. Therefore, we are authorising the deployment of the Deutsches Heer and the Kaiserliche Marine to the other side of the Gate." said Chancellor Hans Vogel in the radio.
"So, we're really doing this, huh?" said Gebhard as he switched the radio off. He had become something of a celebrity following his actions in Berlin that day. He received the Iron Cross Second Class, along with a promotion to the rank of Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant). But despite all that, Gebhard had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he thought about what was going to happen next. It wasn't just the prospect of fighting against the Saderans, as their newfound enemy have come to be known, thanks to the prisoners of war they managed to capture in Berlin and Hamburg, but also the possibility of dying on foreign soil, which was one of the reasons why he was so reluctant to sign up, even though he hadn't seen the other side of the Gate yet. Not that he didn't want to go through with the mission; after all, he was quite keen on finding out what lay beyond the Gate. However, what scared him more than any other fear was his uncertainty over whether he would be able to return to Germany after the mission.
"I guess we are..." said Sergeant Konrad Müller, as he took a swig from his bottle. He was transferred from Breslau to Berlin in the following days of the opening of the Gates. The two men had quickly bonded and became good friends during their days together at the base in Berlin.
"The eyes of the world are on us, sir." Konrad added as he picked up a newspaper. Just a glance at the headlines confirmed his words.
"BERLIN ATTACKED! Mysterious invaders beaten back by German troops."
"ALBERT EINSTEIN: "The Gate is beyond my wildest dreams." Scientists baffled by structures appearing in Berlin and Hamburg."
"OFF-DUTY SOLDIER SAVES HUNDREDS"
"BEAST OF HAMBURG Marine machine gunner allegedly kills thousands of invaders."
"GERMANS ENSLAVED? Anthropologists theorise German citizens taken in attack on Berlin might be slaves."
"9TH ARMY TO BE DEPLOYED TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GATE"
"Even the news from the Entente's war with Japan and India are barely mentioned." He added with some disbelief. Konrad sighed heavily. "It's not going to end soon, is it?"
"That's for sure," answered Gebhard as he threw aside his copy of the newspaper. Both men remained silent for a few seconds. They were interrupted by Sergeant Karl Schreiber, a man assigned to their unit who approached them with a pile of neatly folded clothes - new uniforms. "Here they are, Lieutenant. Sergeant." He said while handing each of them a uniform. "New unifroms. Freshly arrived from the Quartermaster." He explained. "As I've heard everyone in the Army will be switching over to these, though budget cuts and the post-war demobilisation means some will have to wait." "So how come we got ours first?" asked Gebhard with a raised eyebrow. "Well, sir. I believe your actions in the past have made us the 'go-to unit."
Three months later, Berlin, German Empire
In the centre of Berlin, the deployment ceremony of the German troops to the other side of the Gate begun. The crowd of spectators and journalists stood shoulder to shoulder at the edge of the streets, some holding cameras and pens ready to take notes. Nearby, a monument was set up for those that died or have gone missing in the attack on Berlin. Several people in black, friends and relatives of those that were lost were paying their respects and brought flowers to the monument. In front of the Gate, columns of German soldiers stood at attention, with the soldiers at the head of each column carrying the standards of the regiments that were to be deployed, as well as the national flag. In front of them, a podium was erected, up to which Chancellor Hans Vogel stepped up to give his speech.
"We are Germans. And our history speaks for itself. For nearly three hundred years now we have fought for our ideals and culture in this great European city and for that reason, as a nation, we have been able to defend those ideals and those customs with pride and determination, never doubting that those principles would triumph." "Today, we face an unprecedented challenge. One that will require the combined efforts of us all. A task in which we cannot lose because we are united and committed. We are the guardians of liberty and law, and this is the responsibility we have accepted from our fathers, our grandparents and our forefathers." "You carry all the hopes and dreams of the German people with you. This battle for freedom is your responsibility too. Be strong, brave, and relentless. Because no matter what lies ahead, you have my eternal respect and gratitude."
After finishing speaking, the Chancellor stepped down from the podium and stood in the back while his place was taken by Kaiser Whilhelm III. He took a deep breath and spoke: "Germany has endured great hardship for centuries. Now it is time to put that struggle to rest. This is an opportunity not many Germans ever see, and certainly not without risk. As one German soldier, I ask you to do whatever it takes to ensure the success of our venture. To defend what's most important to us, the values that have guided us since time immemorial, that has given rise to the nation of today and will continue giving rise to our future. That is why, I call upon every man and woman of the German armed forces in the field of battle... Fight for Germany!"
With the last words uttered, all the assembled military personnel saluted at their officers. The Kaiser stepped down from the podium and joined Chancellor Vogel, his place taken by General Heinz Guderian, renowned war hero and commanding officer of the German forces that were ordered to deploy to the other side of the Gate.
"I am General Heinz Guderian, your commanding officer." began Guderian. "Several missions have scouted the region over the last month. So far, all of our scouting parties came back alive. However, we still don't know what we're facing. Therefore, you are ordered to prepare for combat the moment you reach the other side. We will be moving out shortly." All the soldiers saluted again. After he was done with his speech, Guderian left the platform, which was quickly moved away from the mouth of the Gate. The soldiers went to gather their weapons and loaded them before flipping the safeties off on their weapons; Maschinengewehr 45 assault rifles, MP40 submachine guns and MG42 light machine guns. As the troops boarded their vehicles, 6 E-75 Jaguar tanks rumbled onto the street and stopped in front of the Gate in a column two tanks wide. They waited until the Kätzchen IFVs carrying the Panzergrenadiers assumed the same formation behind them before they drove into the Gate.
Inside the Gate was nothing but pure darkness, so the tanks, IFVs and the trucks that followed them, carrying more German soldiers had to rely on their headlights to illuminate their path to the other side. The soldiers inside the IFVs and trucks felt like they were driving into the jaws of death as they moved through the Gate. The soldiers in the open-topped Kätzchens couldn't help but stare at the Gate's pitch-black interior and wonder if there was anything waiting for them on the other side. Even the drivers of the vehicles and the crews of the tanks could feel their hearts racing fast in anticipation for the unknown; they were hoping that they would be able to survive what lay ahead.
Inside one of the Kätzchens sat Gebhard, Konrad and Karl. Both Konrad and Gebhard sat silently, watching their colleagues' faces illuminated by the dim blue light of their lamps, while Karl just looked out the window of the Kätzchen, lost in thought.
"Wir sind verloren... Wir sind verloren..." Konrad started quietly singing 'Wo alle Straßen enden', but was interrupted by Karl. "Hey, cut that depressing crap out. They've got swords and spears and we've got guns. What's the worst that could happen, right?" said Karl jokingly trying to relieve some of the tension between the two men.
"I hope you're right about that..." said Konrad as he shook his head.
Just then they could see light from around the shilhouettes of the tanks in front of them. They were getting close to the other side. As the tanks continued advancing, the darkness slowly disappeared, and the various vehicles' headlights were finally turned off. Soon, they passed through the Gate and were welcomed by the sight of a night sky illuminated by countless stars, beneath the sky was a landscape of sweeping hills for as far as the eyes could see. The tanks, IFVs and trucks spread out around the Gate in a defensive formation. The Jaguar tanks used their IR sights to scan the terrain. It didn't take long for them to spot a several thousand strong army of Saderans, supported by demihuman auxiliaries and wyvern riders. Just before the Saderans revealed themselves by litting torches, the tanks alerted the Kätzchens via radio. The Panzergrenadiers inside quickly opened the rear hatches and jumped out, taking up positions around their armored vehicles, while a request for further reinforcements was sent back to General Guderian via radio.
Gebhard was in the centre of their formation, looking out over the army of the Saderans. There was a stillness, a calm that was interrupted only by the rumbling of the tanks' and IFVs' engines and the officers shouting orders. In the soldiers' minds, the silent standoff felt like hours to them, as if they could feel the tension growing even deeper in the air around them. In reality, only minutes passed before the sun began to rise above the mountains behind the Gate, letting the opposing sides clearly see each-other. They were both nervous. But more than nervous, confused, and worried. Neither knew what the other was going to do next. The standoff didn't last long as Saderan battle horns gave off their sound and they began charging the German positions.
The Jaguar tanks were the first to respond, shooting a volley towards the approaching Saderans. Immediately the tanks were joined up by the German Kätzchens, firing at the attacking force with their machine guns. The Saderans' demi-human auxiliaries, who served as shock troops were at the front of the charge and took the brunt of the Germans' fire. Many demi-humans fell dead as the German machine guns blasted away at them, resulting in the vast majority of the attacking demi-humans being killed or wounded; their cries of pain, fear or surprise echoed across the plains. Their sacrifice was for naught as they made it barely halfway up the hill before the Germans' concentrated fire cut them down, leaving the Saderan legionnaires without their usual meatshields, and with the Germans shifting their fire on them, were slaughtered as their shields and their armor was useless against the powerful German weapons. Any cohort that tried to take the initiative and advance was quickly torn apart by German small arms and machine gun fire from both infantry, IFVs and tanks alike, with the latter sending shells liberally into the massed formations of Saderan legionnaires.
The Saderans' wyvern riders had more success with their aerial attacks. With great precision, several dozen of the winged beasts descended on the German lines, swooping down from the skies. When they did, the infantry fired back at them. The creatures were easily repelled by concentrated German small arms fire and with the help of the few Fliegerfaust shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles the first wave had. While the weapon's performance in the Second Weltkrieg left much to be desired, due to its short range and wide dispersion of missiles, it was an effective weapon against the Saderans' wyverns due to the fact that the winged monsters had to come to practically point-blank range to attack the German infantry. Even with the odds stacked against them, some of the wyverns managed to swoop in and kill a couple German soldiers, either by their riders skewering them with their lances or the wyverns themselves snatching them up in their jaws.
The remaining wyverns were forming up for another attack run before German reinforcements came out of the Gate; a Kugelblitz self-propelled anti-aircraft gun and a pair of .251/21 Drillings armed with MG 151/20 anti-aircraft guns in triple-barreled mounts followed up by mechanized and motorized infantry. These weapons were designed to shoot down much faster planes than the wyverns were capable of flying and were massacred by the German AA guns.
Seeing the wyvern riders, the pride of the Imperial Saderan Army being reduced to nothing more than mere mincemeat by the German AA guns, the Saderans abandoned their plan to storm the hill, and instead, fled to their camp nearby, where most of the legion, was and was already hastily preparing for battle. Soldiers quickly donned their armor, officers shouted out orders, orcs, goblins, and ogres were quickly ordered to the entrances of the camp, while the few mages they had were reading ancient incantations and preparing their spells. The camp itself was more like a small wooden fort, with towers and ballistas emplaced on the towers and along the walls.
With the Saderans' withdrawal to their fort, the Germans gained the initiative in the battle. The Germans started firing their mortars from their positions on the hilltop, blasting away at the camp and the surrounding area, destroying many of the tents and structures which now served as makeshift shelters. Gebhard and the troops around him watched the detonations erupt in and around the camp, shaking the ground under their feet. He and many other German soldiers were no strangers to the horrors of war, with some having fought in the Second Welkrieg against the Syndicalists in France and Britain, and with even more serving in Russia during the Reichspakt's push towards the Ural Mountains. What they saw was nothing short of a massacre. He could make out some enemy soldiers looking to the skies as if they believed the Gods themselves rained fury down on them. Earth and debris were thrown high into the air and the screams of the injured and dying were heard throughout the battlefield.
"Mount up! Once the mortars are done we'll be making a push for the camp!" Gebhard heard a Major shouting. The soldiers swiftly boarded their IFVs and were on the move in a short time behind their Jaguar tanks, which were heading directly towards the Saderan position. All of this happened very quickly. The enemy quickly noticed the tanks and IFVs coming and cavalrymen mounted their horses, leading the charge. A brave, yet suicidal move, as the horsemen charged directly into the path of the tanks' and IFVs' deadly machine guns. Gebhard could see from the Kätzchen IFV he was riding in the knight leading the charge, decked in a resplendent crimson armor before he was gunned down by the vehicle's machine gunner, his armor shredded by the bullets. The constant chattering of the German machine guns with the periodic thundering sounds of the tanks' main guns accompanied the cacophony of screaming Saderans. Those that didn't receive the mercy of being gunned down were crushed under the German vehicles and tanks' tracks, trampled into a pulp. Men and horses were torn apart every time the tanks' 12.8 cm main guns roared at them. Those that weren't were sent screaming off their terrified mounts, rolling across the ground in agony, with blood pouring out of their bodies.
Once the cavalry was dealt with, the German soldiers inside the Kätzchens dismounted from their vehicles and fought on foot, adding their fire to the steel rain that fell on the Saderans. The remaining ballistas of the fort tried to stop the tanks but the round stones they fired harmlessly bounced off the German tanks' armor. Gebhard could see in-between firing bursts from his Sturmgewehr as a Jaguar slowly traversed it's turret towards a ballista that had hit it moments prior, as if it had taken insult by the projectile being fired at it. The tank fired before the ballista's crew could reload, turning it and the crew manning it into mulch and scattered body parts.
Gebhard and his platoon advanced with a steady pace, following closely behind a Jaguar. He was about to shout words of encouragement to his soldiers when he noticed a bright red spark snapping into existence from behind a broken section of the wall and hurled towards the tank. His training and experience from combat kicked in and he screamed "Panzerschreck! Get down!" as he threw himself on the ground. A moment later the spark collided with the tank's turret and exploded, leaving a black smudge and rocking the tank slightly, but no visible damage was present to the tank. That didn't stop the driver of the tank from panicking and slamming on the brakes.
"Where the fuck did that come from?!" Gebhard could hear one of his soldiers shout as he got back on his feet and he saw a robed figure standing behind the charred and smoking remains of what once was a section of the fort's wooden walls. He had seen the oddly dressed individual waving some sort of staff around in his hands as he tried his best to stay hidden and Gebhard thought nothing of it as he focused his fire on a group of spear-wielding legionnaires. There was no way magic actually existed, until he saw an honest to God wizard conjure a fireball from thin air and hurl it towards one of their tanks.
No thoughts, just action. It took no more than five seconds for his rifle barrel to snap up to face his target, the muzzle flash lighting up his vision as he fired a three-round burst, each bullet piercing through the torso of the sorcerer and punching into his chest cavity, causing him to fall backwards. The mage was dead before he hit the ground. With one of their only remaining wizards dead, the Saderans' morale plummeted, and the remainder of the men broke ranks, running away and fleeing for their lives.
Not even their strongest weapons could stand up against such overwhelming firepower, and without their leadership, the Saderans were forced to flee in all directions. They failed to invade their enemy first, but now they failed to defend their homeland and the sacred hills of Alnus. Shame was all that they had left.
Once the fighting died down and the last of the Saderans were either gunned down while fleeing or have fled beyond the range of the German guns did the soldiers of the Kaiser have a chance to take a look at their surroundings. The air tasted clean and fresh, sloping lush green fields stretched on for miles. In the distance, snow-capped mountains towered over equally lush forests. All of this sat under a vast blue sky that looked almost too perfectly clear. The only thing that soured this new world's beauty and served as a grim reminder of why they were there was the piles of corpses and craters the Germans have made. Smoke from the smouldering fort joined the smoke from the piles of corpses which were set alight by the German soldiers, carrying with them the stench of human excrement and burnt flesh. The broken tents, tattered banners and charred ruins of a fort that belonged to a once proud army served as a grim warning to all those who would challenge this world's invaders.
"You see, I told you there was no need for you to worry." said Karl as he, Konrad and Gebhard sat on one of their tanks, smoking cigarettes, eating biscuits, and drinking tea from their combat rations, enjoying the sights of the land.
"Yes, yes. You're right, Karl." replied Gebhard with his cigarette hanging loosely from the corner of his mouth. "There were some close calls, but everything worked out in the end," he said, grinning.
"How many men did you kill?" asked Konrad as he wiped the sweat from his brow, after gulping down half of his water.
"I lost count, let me see..." Gebhard took a long sip of the warm tea and then shook his head. "I lost count after twenty."
"Twenty? Jesus Christ, Gebhard. How can you be so calm?!" exclaimed Konrad. "Well, what else am I supposed to do?" Gebhard chuckled nervously, still smiling, but his grin soon dropped as he continued to stare into his mug of tea. "It's not like I'm going to get a medal, there were way too many of them to confirm who killed how many."
"Well, I guess that's true." said Karl, taking another swig of his tea. "At least we've secured this end of the Gate." he finished.
"Yup." replied Gebhard, nodding and smiling again, taking another long sip from his mug.
"What now then? We've captured this fortress, and destroyed the enemy camp; now what? Are we waiting for orders?" asked Karl.
"Yepp, but we'll probably fortify our foothold here before making any further moves." answered Gebhard.
"Then let's make the most of the rest of our days, eh?" said Karl. "After all, they're not gonna let us leave anytime soon, right Gebhard?"
"Nope, nope, nope...we'll still be here for a good ten months or more yet." said Gebhard. "And that's my optimistic estimate."
"Why so pessimistic?" Konrad asked with a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. "Because, Konrad, I'm afraid of what is ahead." Gebhard admitted.
"We'll just have to stick together then, won't we? No matter where life takes us, we'll stick together." said Karl confidently. "Yeah, that's the spirit." said Gebhard, giving Karl a thumbs up.
"Well, cheers to our victory, gentlemen!" shouted Karl, raising his tea mug, followed by Gebhard and Konrad. The three men clinked mugs and drank from their steaming cups before they returned to work.
And so, the German Empire set foot into the lands beyond the Gate.
And with the first of the many massacres we're going to see concluded, I bid you all goodbye and I'll see you guys again soon next time at the high seas!